剑桥雅思5 Test 1阅读Passage 3原文翻译 环境问题的真相 The truth about the environment
剑桥雅思5第一套题目阅读第三篇文章的主题为环境问题的真相。文章共分为12段，解释了当前环境问题被夸大的各种原因，解释了环保组织、媒体等在其中发挥的作用。下面是具体每一段的翻译。
点击查看这篇雅思阅读文章对应的题目答案解析和其中需要大家掌握的重点词汇：
剑桥雅思5 Test 1阅读Passage 3答案解析 环境问题的真相
雅思真题阅读词汇 剑桥雅思5 test 1 passage 3环境类
剑桥雅思5 Test 1 Passage 3阅读原文翻译
第1段
For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted.
对于许多环保主义者来说，世界似乎正在恶化。他们已经列出了我们主要担心的清单：自然资源正在枯竭；人口在不断增长，吃得越来越少；物种正在大量灭绝，并且地球的空气和水被污染的越来越多。
第2段
But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have become more abundant, not less so, since the book ‘The Limits to Growth’ was published in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per head of the world’s population than at any time in history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50 years, not 25-50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are transient – associated with the early phases of industrialisation and therefore best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form of pollution – the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming – does appear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future, but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it.
但是大概看一眼事实会显示出不同的景象。首先，自从一群科学家于1972年出版了《增长的极限》一书以来，能源和其他自然资源就变得越来越丰富，而不是更少。第二，现在世界上人均生产的粮食比历史上任何时候都要多。有更少的人挨饿。第三，尽管物种确实正在灭绝，但它们之中只有0.7％将在未来50年内消失，而不是像通常所预测的那样消失25-50％。最后，大多数形式的环境污染文章来自老烤鸭雅思要么似乎被夸大，要么只是短期现象-与工业化的早期阶段有关。因此，最好的解决办法不是限制经济增长，而是加速增长。一种形式的污染-导致全球变暖的温室气体的释放-确实是一种将一直延伸到我们未来的现象，但其影响不太可能造成破坏性问题。更大的问题很可能是对它不恰当的回应。
第3段
Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standards are declining and four factors seem to cause this disjunction between perception and reality.
然而民意测验表明，许多人培养出这样的信念，即环境标准正在下降。有四个因素似乎导致了这种感知与现实之间脱节。
第4段
One is the lopsidedness built into scientific research. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that many more potential problems exist than is the case.
一是科学研究中的不平衡。科研资金主要用于存在许多问题的领域。这可能是明智的政策，但也会给人一种印象，那就是存在的潜在问题比实际情况要多得多。
第5段
Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: ‘Two thirds of the world’s forests lost forever’. The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.
其次，环保组织需要大众媒体的关注。他们还需要保持资金的流入。可以理解的是，也许他们有时夸大了自己的论点。例如，1997年，世界自然基金会发布了一份新闻稿，标题为：“世界三分之二的森林永远消失了” 。其实才不到20％。
第6段
Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organisation arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.
尽管这些团体绝大多数由无私的人管理，但它们仍具有其他游说团体的许多特征。如果人们对环境游说的怀疑程度与对其他领域的游说团体的怀疑程度相同，那么问题就没那么严重。例如，一个贸易组织主张减弱污染控制会立刻被看作是自私自利的行为。然而，反对这种削弱的绿色组织却被认为是无私的，即使对有关控制的公正看法可能表明它们的行为弊大于利。
第7段
A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant distortions of perception. An example was America’s encounter with El Niño in 1997 and 1998. This climatic phenomenon was accused of wrecking tourism, causing allergies, melting the ski-slopes and causing 22 deaths. However, according to an article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the damage it did was estimated at US $4 billion but the benefits amounted to some US $19 billion. These came from higher winter temperatures (which saved an estimated 850 lives, reduced heating costs and diminished spring floods caused by meltwaters).
造成混乱的第三个原因是媒体的态度。人们显然对坏消息比对好消息更加好奇。报纸和广播公司提供公众想要的东西。但是，这可能会导致认知的严重失真。一个例子是美国在1997年和1998年遭遇厄尔尼诺的事情。这种气候现象被指控破坏了旅游业，造成了过敏，融化了滑雪坡并造成22人死亡。但是，根据《美国气象学会公报》上的一篇文章，它造成的损失估计为40亿美元，但收益却高达190亿美元。它们来自冬季较高的温度（预计挽救了850条生命，降低了取暖成本，并减少了由融水引发的春季洪水）。
第8段
The fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise in the amount of stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of places to dispose of waste. Yet, even if America’s trash output continues to rise as it has done in the past, and even if the American population doubles by 2100, all the rubbish America produces through the entire 21st century will still take up only one-12,000th of the area of the entire United States.
第四个因素是个人认知能力较差。人们担心，每个人扔掉的东西数量不断增加将导致世界耗尽处置垃圾的地方。但是，即使美国的垃圾产量像过去一样继续增加，即使美国人口到2100年翻了一番，整个21世纪美国生产的所有垃圾仍将只占整个美国面积的12000分之一。
第9段
So what of global warming? As we know, carbon dioxide emissions are causing the planet to warm. The best estimates are that the temperatures will rise by 2-3℃ in this century, causing considerable problems, at a total cost of US $5,000 billion.
那么全球变暖又如何呢？众所周知，二氧化碳的排放正在使地球变暖。最好的估计是，本世纪温度将上升2 -3℃ ，造成相当大的问题，损失总计5万亿美元。
第10段
Despite the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly problem, economic analyses clearly show it will be far more expensive to cut carbon dioxide emissions radically than to pay the costs of adaptation to the increased temperatures. A model by one of the main authors of the United Nations Climate Change Panel shows how an expected temperature increase of 2.1 degrees in 2100 would only be diminished to an increase of 1.9 degrees. Or to put it another way, the temperature increase that the planet would have experienced in 2094 would be postponed to 2100.
尽管直觉上需要对这样一个代价高昂的问题采取一些大动作，但经济分析清楚地表明，从根本上减少二氧化碳的排放要比为适应升高的温度付出更为昂贵的代价。联合国气候变化小组主要作者之一的模型显示，预计在2100年升高的2.1度只会被削减到升高1.9度。换句话说，地球在2094年经历的温度增长将被推迟到2100年。
第11段
So this does not prevent global warming, but merely buys the world six years. Yet the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for the United States alone, will be higher than the cost of solving the world’s single, most pressing health problem: providing universal access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Such measures would avoid 2 million deaths every year, and prevent half a billion people from becoming seriously ill.
因此，这并不能阻止全球变暖，而仅仅是为世界争取6年的时间。然而，单单就美国自身而言，减少二氧化碳排放的成本将比解决世界上最紧迫的健康问题的成本还要高：为全世界提供清洁饮用水和卫生设施。这样的措施每年可以避免200万人死亡，并防止5亿人染上重病。
第12段
It is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible decisions for the future. It may be costly to be overly optimistic – but more costly still to be too pessimistic.
如果我们想为未来做出最好的决定，那么对事实的考虑至关重要。过于乐观可能会付出代价，但过于悲观则代价更高。
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